Canmore Folk Festival keeps 31,751 single-use items out of the landfill

The Canmore Folk Music Festival served food and drinks on reusable plates, cups and utensils across its grounds this year, keeping an estimated 31,751 single-use items out of the waste stream.

The festival-wide rollout marks a significant expansion from last year, when organizers tested reusable cups in a smaller pilot program. This year, reuse became the default across the festival’s vendor food market, artist, VIP and volunteer areas, as well as the beer tent and cafe.

The program, called Canmore Borrows, brought together the Canmore Folk Music Festival, Town of Canmore, Bow Valley Waste Commission, Tourism Canmore Kananaskis and Muuse, a reuse service that supplied the reusable dishware and managed much of the logistics required to keep it circulating.

For festival-goers, the system was designed to work alongside the event’s existing waste-sorting stations. Reusable collection bins were placed next to landfill, recycling and compost bins, allowing attendees to return their used plates, cups and utensils without having to sign up for an app or pay a deposit.

The Biosphere Institute’s Green Team volunteers helped manage the stations throughout the weekend, while security helped prevent reusable items from leaving the festival grounds.

Once collected, the dishware was taken by Muuse to an off-site washing operation. The company’s local network of commercial dishwashers in Canmore and Banff handled the volume generated by the festival. Items were sorted, rinsed, washed at high temperatures, air-dried, hand-polished, counted and packed before being returned the following morning.

According to Muuse, the program avoided 31,751 single-use items this year, which is enough to fill about 100 regular-sized garbage bags. These results put the Folk Festival program among the company’s strongest waste-diversion efforts in Western Canada, according to project manager Kaeleigh Doherty.

From a small pilot to a festival-wide system

The decision to expand the Canmore Borrows program came after last year’s Canmore Folk Festival pilot, which tested whether reusable cups could work at a large local event.

The 2025 pilot involved a few hundred reusable cups and tested two different approaches.

At the beer tent, reusable cold cups were provided without requiring attendees to scan or register them. At the cafe, attendees used Muuse’s “scan and borrow” system, downloading the company’s app and signing out a stainless steel travel mug much like borrowing a library book.

The pilot avoided 3,685 single-use items, according to Muuse.

It also showed organizers that the simpler system produced greater waste avoidance.

“We also saw much bigger impact in terms of waste avoidance with the cups that didn’t need scanning, and we decided to focus on those moving forward,” said Amy Fournier, a climate action coordinator for the Town of Canmore.

Muuse found a similar lesson in the pilot. The app-based system created a barrier for people who did not want to download an app or provide credit card information.

“Removing barriers to entry and providing reuse by default, versus offering the choice, is key to increasing impact,” said Doherty.

A test for other Bow Valley events

The organizers see the Folk Festival as more than a one-off waste reduction project. Its size makes it a useful demonstration of whether reuse can work at the scale of a major community event.

“Removing single-use dishes from the landfill at large-scale events like the Canmore Folk Festival goes a long way toward protecting the place that brings people here in the first place,” said Tourism Canmore Kananaskis. 

The Town hopes more local events will adopt reusable dishware, with the longer-term goal of making reusables a normal part of events in Canmore. 

The Canmore Borrows program has also been implemented at the Rotary Club of Canmore’s Canada Day Breakfast, and select Mountain Markets throughout the summer.

“We love being part of this program because it demonstrates that it is possible,” Fournier said. “The Folk Festival is a massive event. And if reusables can work at a festival that large, they can work at other events in the Bow Valley.”